Manufacture of ornamental felt cloth



unimo STATES PATENT opinen.

O. B. TOMLINSON, OF ATHENS, PENNSYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE OF ORNAMENTAL FELT CLOTH.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 13,018, dated June 5, 1855.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, O. B. ToMLINsoN, of Athens, in the county of Bradford and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Ornamental Felt Fabrics; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a view of the ornamental felt fabric, in its preparation, when the colored wool is placed along with the uncolored wool. Fig. 2, is a View of the ornamental fabric, when felted and finished. Fig. 3, is a view of the fabric, made into a shoe.

The nature of the invention consists in placing and mixing colored wool on an uncolored batting for felting, and arranging the said colored wool into any desired form, to make a pattern of flowers, &c., when felted; the colored and uncolored wool, being felted and combined together, form a colored ornamental felt fabric, of great. beauty, which is capable of being manufactured into many useful articles, like the one represented in Fig. 3.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

Wool that is designed to be formed into felt cloth7 is cleaned, picked, carded, and then formed into such sheets of batting as are necessary for the ornamental article' of cloth which I design to make. These several processes, and the machinery employed to accomplish the same, are old andl well known, and not claimed by me. .Therefore they need not be further described by me. The wool batting to be felted is loose and light, and generally of a uniform'thickness of about three-fourths of an inch. When the wool is in the batting, I lay colored wool on the batting, in the manner shown in Fig. l; such as some red wool for a rose, and green wool for leaves; and I arrange these and other colors on the'batting to form the pattern of a colored wreath, or,of a bunch of iiowers, &c., according'to any required design.

After the batting has had the colored wool or wools, or fur, to form the design, placed upon its surface, it is necessary to harden the sheet of batting, to enable it to be handled, while it undergoes the shrinking process. The hardening 7 o peration is performed by wrapping the sheet of batting in a cotton or other cloth, which is sprinkled with water, and placed upon an iron plate, sufliciently warm to raise the moisture into steam. The workman frequent-ly presses the batting and sheet with a board, and sprinkles and turns the articles (batting and cloth) on the plate. This action continued for some time, hardens, as it is technically termed, the batting. This operation is also well known, and I do not claim .it as my invention; therefore it vneed not be further described. After the batting, with the colored design laid upon it, is hardened, the operator takes it to the shrinking ketttle, where it undergoes the shrinking or felting action, which is performed in the common way, and 'need not be further described. Much care must be exercised, during the felting process; to prevent the batting becoming uneven in thickness; as is well known to those skilled in the art. The felting or shrinking process fixes the colored wool among the uncolored wool in the batting, so as to form parts of the body of the felt cloth itself, as shown in Fig. 2; and in this respect, it is superior to a printed fabric; and it can be produced at a far less expense than that required in the production of woven woolen fabrics.

I-Iaving thus described my invention, I do not claim the incorporation of rovings of dierent colors in the manufacture of felt stripes, checks or plaide, but

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is,

The manufacturing of ornamental feltfabrics, by placing colo-red wool, fur, or any other shrinking substance, upon the surface of a sheet of batting, and shrinking the saine colored wool, &c.,` into the body of the felt, in the manner substantially as described, to form an ornamental felt fabric, of the character and quality described for the purpose set forth.

O. B. TOMLINSON.

Witnesses:

R. M. WELLEs, R. L. MoGEoRGE. 

